Papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus, is an invasive pest of 13 Caribbean countries, where it attacks >55 host plants including field and fruit crops and ornamentals. Papaya mealybug has also been found in a few Florida counties. The National Biological Control Institute (USDA-APHIS-PPQ) is conducting collaborative biological control against P. marginatus in Dominican Republic (on papaya) and Puerto Rico (on hibiscus), as part of an offshore initiative to manage foreign invasive pests that are high-risk to penetrate PPQ's exclusion and plant safeguarding shield. In both countries, we established study sites for baseline survey, then for parasitoid release and impact evaluation. In the Dominican Republic, from May through December 2000 we released >15,000 parasitoids of P. marginatus (Apoanagyrus californicus, Anagyrus loecki, Acerophagus sp., and Pseudaphycus sp.) from Mexico and reared in Puerto Rico. Every three months we evaluated their impact on P. marginatus at these study sites by recording P. marginatus density (2nd and 3rd instars and adults) and parasitism levels. Density of P. marginatus per 100 cm2 of leaf area declined from 70 in May 2000 to 0.2 in May 2001 (99.7% reduction). Parasitism increased from <1% to 58% during the same period. In Puerto Rico, parasitism by these four parasitoids reduced P. marginatus density from 447 individuals per 6-inch hibiscus terminal to 14 (97% decline) within 11 months. Acerophagus sp. emerged as the dominant parasitoid species in both countries. Biological control of papaya mealybug, like the NBCI Pink Hibiscus Mealybug Project, has been a great success in PPQ's Offshore Initiative.
Species 1: Hemiptera Pseudococcidae Paracoccus marginatus (papaya mealybug)
Species 2: Hymenoptera Encytidae Apoanagyrus californicus
Species 3: Hymenoptera Encyrtidae Anagyrus loecki
Keywords: Mealybug, Biological control
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA